by Mark Clodi
Stewart quickly ducked in and turned off the dome light and Max saw her struggling to move over to the driver’s seat. Steve was just a bobbing head out in the parking lot by now. “Tom, everything still clear?” Max hated himself for asking, Tom knew his job and would only break silence if something happened.
“Yeah.” came the reply, “What’s Stewart doing?”
Max looked out, Steve’s car was moving! The tail lights as he braked to come around the corner to the front of the building attracted unwanted attention. Closer still the squad car's engine turned over, it took a moment of grinding then that car started up too. Stewart pulled it nose first towards the parking lot then backed it up quickly to the right of the front door. Steve just popped his car over the curb and parked it nose first on the left hand side of the door, both cut the engines simultaneously and hopped out as Tom said into Max’s ear, “Three of them coming around the side of the building four, five, uh, lots more attracted from the street.” Stewart and Steve moved into the building quickly and quietly, Max slammed the door shut behind them and all three of them leaned against the door until the magnetic lock clicked on with a soft noise.
They backed away from the door and Max listened while Tom described the ten or twelve zombies that milled about the front of the buildings. When it was apparent that they were safe, Stewart let out laugh, “We did it!”
Max was ready to be angry, the squad car was not part of the deal, but looking things over it was a good call on Stewart’s part and her initiative deserved praise, not condemnation. So instead he said, “Yeah, we, uh...I mean you, did. That was excellent work on the car. How’d you get it to start?”
“Well we have a lot of times where we have to sit at a crime or accident scene with our lights on for a long time, running the battery down was common enough that a few years ago the department bought those batteries with a special reserve in them to kinda of jump start the cars, flip a switch and you are effectively using a whole separate battery. Ours are heavy duty, and the alternator is wired to charge up both batteries when the car is running, we are good to go and have two cars now instead of one, not to mention a shotgun and ammo for my other guns. Is Tom coming down?”
“He is probably on his way. Good job both of you, Steve you were awesome, a world class run if I ever saw one.” said Max, “So now what? We have the cars, do we tell everyone else? Make a break for it? How is the ammo situation now?”
Stewart answered, “Well good, compared to what it was, I have reloads out of my bag for my handguns and the squad car shotgun has both man shot and some rounds that are supposed to be armor piercing. I really wish I was in one of the cars that carried the assault rifles, that would have been nice. Though I suppose with a head shot to kill, single shots are better.”
“Man shot?” Steve asked.
“Yeah, double ought buckshot. I have some riot rounds too, doubt they will do much against a zombie, but man they should knock them on their asses at least. Tear gas, what a joke, won’t need that. It does get smoky though, that might be worth something. I don’t think we need to go wake everyone up to tell them of our good fortune tonight, we will do it in the morning, everyone will more or less know by then anyway. I wonder how boss lady will take it? Bad probably.”
That said they waited until the next shift arrived to relieve them, shortly after that their relief came down, Walter “Walt” Coggins, an older guy whom Max had always liked. They left him at his post with the advice to get help if anything happened and went up to the cubicles they had staked out earlier to sleep.
Chapter 19
Cautiously they crept the remaining distance keeping to the shadows as best they could. Hiding behind an abandoned Ford Explorer Nancy and Veronica watched the survivors gain access to the patrol car and one other, more sporty vehicle, all without attracting undue notice from the surrounding ‘dumb’ zombies.
“Look.” Veronica directed Nancy’s attention towards officer Stewart. “She’s going to be trouble.”
They watched as Stewart calmly lifted the hood of her car and did something, then hopped in and backed it up to the front doors of MAC co. Stewart’s professional manner under pressure was admirable, Nancy was thinking maybe a hole would have to be made to allow the more competent to survive what she had planed, and therefore allow her and her team to come out of it with less casualties as well. Steve was pretty calm too. Nancy recognized him from work, she always thought he was a bit of a flake, that impression was forced to change, it took balls to run out into the night of the parking lot, hop into your car and drive it back to the building. The other guys, Nancy saw one on the roof who she didn’t, or couldn’t recognize and another one hanging by the door, who might be a guy named Max. Nancy didn’t really get a good look at him, so for now he was ‘Max’. What the group did was just as informative as how they did it. They brought the cars back, why do that unless there were more people in the building? So there were more than four, but how many more? Nancy thought back to this morning, not many early birds came in, but she knew there was a night crew, but how many workers were on graveyard?
Nancy and Veronica watched from their hiding place taking survey of the remaining survivors until Stewart closed the metal framed glass door behind her officially ending their adventure. Some of the dead banged and pulled at the door but had no luck gaining access to the building. Eventually they lost interest and shuffled away in search of new prey.
“I counted four, involved in getting the cars. We have no way to know how many others remained behind. There could be five or fifty five people in there. What’s the plan?” Veronica asked.
Nancy thought for a moment and then surveyed the parking lot. “How many cars would you guess are out there?”
“Twenty, maybe thirty at most.” Veronica answered.
“Does it make sense then that there would be thirty, maybe forty at most, in that building? Only I know some of us are already zombies, me, Fred, who else? I bet we are dealing with less than thirty people, probably closer to twenty.”
“Yeah, that makes sense, where does that get us?”
Nancy leaned her back against the cool metal of the SUV and slid down until she was sitting on the asphalt. Veronica, anticipating that this was not going to be a short conversation did the same.
“Where that gets us is that we are probably out numbered. Add in the fact that they have guns and I’d say that we had better not take them lightly don’t you think? I think we need to let some of them go, the people who did this sure, they have the guns and the keys to the cars, if we can leave them an opening, they will exploit it and get out. Out of our way, leaving us with…meat.”
Veronica did not bother to answer, her face told Nancy that she was still waiting for some kind of revelation.
Somewhat irritated Nancy went on, “OK, lets think this through. They have two options, stay in the building or make a break for it. Apparently they decided to go with the second option, they are getting ready to leave, if we wait too long to strike they will get away. They need food, water, family, they will try to leave soon.”
“So, we wait until they try again, mix in with the rest of the dead and hope that we don’t take a bullet in the head?” Veronica concluded with a frown.
“Yeah. Doesn’t sound too good does it? Plus, how long will they wait before leaving exactly? A day? An hour? The longer we wait the hungrier we get. Let’s not forget our main goal here. The first priority is to get into the building, find Fred and make sushi out him. The stronger we are the better our chances of accomplishing that goal. Right?”
“I agree, but how do you recommend that we sneak into the building? The doors look secure and I’m sure they’d hear us if we broke one of the windows.”
“Ah. That is why I am in charge my dear V.” Nancy boasted as she revealed a card with her photo on the front and the letters MAC CO printed across the top.
The two women finalized their plans and then returned to where Jim and the other girls were waiting
. They decided to wait until things settled down a bit and enter the building using Nancy’s card key at the back loading dock entrance. Nancy told Veronica that Jim and the other girls would be expendable should they encounter resistance from the living, but Veronica knew the truth, that she too was easily replaced in Nancy’s eyes.
Nancy forced herself to wait the agreed waiting period before leading the group to the back of the building. Once there they watched for signs of life, however, the cool blue solar reflective tinting on the glass hid any movement or lifelike energy from their view.
Veronica suggested that they move towards the back entrance “zombie-like” and not as a group so as to not raise any suspicion from anyone who might be watching from the inside. Jim was the first to make the short trip across the pavement to the rear entrance and when he arrived without incident the other girls followed one by one leaving Veronica and finally Nancy to bring up the rear. Nancy quickly swiped her card key across the reader mounted to the wall adjacent the door. With a familiar beep the small light on the card reader went from red to green and the magnetic lock released.
Walter “Walt” Coggins had been one of the “hiders” and had gladly volunteered to take his turn at watch in the main lobby. Walt now lounged in the security guards chair near the front entrance while the rest of the people rested in Kirkpatrick’s office area. Walt had been the facilities maintenance supervisor and considered the MAC Co building his home away from home. He was in his late sixties and had planned to work three more years before he retired. After the death of his wife seven years ago Walt had made the unconscious decision to adopt MAC Co and it's employees as his second family. Walt knew everyone that worked there, at one time or another he had passed them in the hallway, replaced a light above their desk, fixed a jammed copier, or had in some other way provided the kind, friendly service that he had become well known for.
The security monitor beeped starting Walt out of his thoughts. He had been staring at the ceiling with his hands clasped behind his head contemplating if a person who had been a vegetarian became a zombie, whether that had any effect on their appetite for meat. Quickly he read the new entry, “Nancy Wieden, Marketing Department, 3:17 a.m., Loading Bay Exterior Card Reader, Approved.”
Miss Wieden? Walt knew Nancy well since she usually worked late hours and he had routinely performed much of his building maintenance during that time so as to not disrupt the general employee population. On numerous occasions, when she had time, they would talk about their lives outside of MAC Co. Yes, he knew Nancy and he was extremely happy that she had made it to the safety of his building.
His excitement got the best of him and before Walt knew it he had left the security guard station and was making tracks to be the first one to welcome Nancy. Walt cut through the middle of the lobby to a nondescript door to the loading docks, passing the one stairwell that had not been blocked off and making his way to the storage rooms outside the loading docks, rooms he knew and loved so well.
Every night at ten the building automatically switched to an energy saver mode so Walt wasn’t surprised when he entered the dimly lit loading area. Only one out of every four lights were illuminated but it was enough for Walt to see a small group of people heading down the hall, away from him.
“Miss Wieden is that you?” The sound of his voice caused the entire group to come to a sudden stop. He could see a figure at the back of the group turn around and when she stepped under one of the illuminated fixtures he was able to confirm that, yes, it was Miss Wieden.
“Walt?”
“Yes Miss Wieden, it’s me and I can’t tell you how glad I am to see that you are ok! I’ve been so worried about you, for that matter, all the other folks who never showed up today. Well, it sure is a blessing to see your face.”
“Other folks? Walt, be a dear and tell me, have you seen Fred from accounting? I really need to speak with him.”
“Fred? Why no, I can’t say that I have seen him, we have some parts of the building shut off, those...but if Fred were in one of them he would have shown up by now. Why? Surely this doesn’t have anything to do with business Miss Wieden, haven’t you seen what’s been going on out there? We’ve got bigger problems to deal with. We should get you up to Kirkpatrick’s office and the let others know you and your friends are alright.” Walt said acknowledging that Nancy was not alone.
“Can you recall if anyone in Kirkpatrick’s office mentioned seeing Fred?”
Walt rubbed his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “No, no, I can’t say that any of them have said anything about him to me.”
Her tone now changed from businesslike to a considerably more friendly manner, “OK then, no harm done, I just would really like to see him. Come over here Walt, I want to introduce you to my new friends.”
The light above Nancy shown down on her like a spot light hiding her face in a dark shadow cast from her brightly lit hair. Her friends, as she called them, were just dark shapes outside of the spot light and Walt could not make out any details. For some reason he hesitated at first and then he remembered that this was Nancy, his friend who he was glad to see was unharmed. As he approached Nancy and her friends a thought entered his old brain.
“Miss Wieden, why do you need Fred so badly?”
“Well Walt, if you need to know. He has something on me and I want to get rid of him.” Nancy replied. Walt had just a fraction of a second to pull back and he was too slow. Nancy and her friends pounced on him like a pack of hungry wolves and tore the life out of him.
Chapter 20
Max couldn’t sleep. Not a surprise given his location, the hard floor inside a cubical at work. However, with the kind of day he had been having he really expected to be able to do more than doze. Part of it was trying to sleep in an unfamiliar area, the noises were unfamiliar and some primeval sense told Max his ‘home’ was being invaded, and kept waking him up. Around three thirty Max opted to go empty his bladder and see if that magic would help get him to sleep again. He was not the only one unable to sleep, he saw several others moving around too, and someone had made a pot of coffee, probably to bring down to Walt. He entered the bathroom and had a feeling of dejavu as there was some serious shuffling going on in the stall, however, after a second the stall opened to reveal a guy named Dave, who Max didn’t really know. Dave nodded sheepishly, as if to say, “Sorry about the smell” and went to wash his hands while Max stood at the urinal. He left while Max was taking his turn at the sink and Max heard him grunt just outside the door.
“What the fu--” , was all Max heard Dave say. It was enough to cause adrenaline to pump into his veins, a feeling Max had grown all too familiar with in the last twenty four hours, abruptly he shut off the water faucet. Out of habit he grabbed paper towels and dried his hands. He cautiously went to the door and listened quietly, he heard a slightly familiar woman’s voice whispering, “Keep quiet Jimbo! Drag him to the cube with the others, we might get a clean sweep after all. V? Have you found the ones with the guns yet? Quiet everyone, maybe we can catch them snoozing. Let me check out the bathrooms to see if we have any other naughty night pissers on our hands.”
Max tensed himself, this was it, no weapons and a zombie bitch getting ready to come in and munch him. He anxiously looked around for something to defend himself with. Nothing came to mind and he heard the door swing open whirling around he was stunned to see it was not his door, apparently it was the door to the women’s bathroom. Quietly Max re-appraised his situation. The handicap bar, if he could pry that off he could bash someone with it, going into the stall he reached down, braced his feet on the ground and lifted as hard as he could. It was fastened too well, he was able to get it loose, but not break it off. Wait! A toilet plunger! A wooden rod fourteen inches long was not much, but better than nothing. Oh and the metal trash can could be slid out of the wall too! Max backed out of the stall, keeping his eyes on the door while backing towards the garbage can. The men’s room door swung open and a large male zombie stepped
in. He immediately spotted Max and swung towards him. He was slow, though, 'Thank God, a break!' thought Max. Max grabbed the trash bin with one hand while pointing the toilet plunger, rubber suction cup first, towards the zombie. He sat the stainless steel trash bin in front of him like a make shift shield. The zombie, just stood there, apparently evaluating the situation, then he shuffled back to the door, slowly opened it and left!
Max stood for a second breathing hard, and then heard the women’s bathroom door open and a female voice quietly say, “Well Jimbo, any other wee-wee birds?”
“No one.” Max heard the zombie man say. Dumbfounded Max listened to the woman's voice reply.
“Good, lets go on real slow, V, you take point, Gap girl you are next up, Jimbo you got the rear, keep well back to cover us, the other girls will be following after me, go people, we have a cube hole up here on the left.”
‘Up on the left? Uh-oh' thought Max, 'that is my cube. Shit.' He went to the door, it opened in such a way to allow Max to peer down the corridor towards where the zombies were heading. The zombie Jimbo was looking right at him, then turned away and shuffled back down the corridor, the opposite direction. 'What the fuck is going on?' thought Max, 'He is letting me get the jump on them, it has to be a trap!'
Still Max, knew it was not going to get any better than right now. Max eased out the door, bracing it against a loud slamming noise and headed off behind, what looked like an all girl gang.
The lead girl was fast approaching the cube entrance, 'This is it.' thought Max. He ran up behind one of the three girls between him and the three zombies in the lead and swung the metal garbage can over his head, it made a resounding thud and the zombie girl dropped like a sack of cement.
When he was a kid, Max, like most of his generation, had watched cartoons. He was reminded of one in particular where the character would swing his guitar at his foes, making a grand ‘El-ka-bong’ noise as he struck them down. It was hilarious, the trash can, filled halfway, made the same noise as it smashed the zombie girl down.